First off, here's wishing all of the North Idaho sports fans out there a happy new year, and may great things lie ahead in 2013.

Speaking of 2013, doesn't it have a Stanley Kubrick ring to it, or perhaps a little George Orwell?

Right now there are economists and politicians alike hunkered down trying to solve the impending fiscal cliff crisis, a conundrum I don't even pretend to understand.

It does beg this question: Could the sports world be nearing a fiscal cliff? To find out, we hop in a time machine and visit the world 20 years from now.

We'll call it 2033: A Sports Odyssey.

Cast of characters

Gramps - He became a sports fan as a teenager in the 1980s, and remembers a day many moons ago before the advent of 24 hour news and the Internet, long before Twittersphere and Blogosphere were part of the public lexicon. The average athlete didn't even make a million dollars a year, and their every thought and utterance wasn't fodder for public consumption.

Dad - He became a sports fan as a teenager in the 2010s. He took for granted that you could find any tidbit of sports information instantly online, because he never knew any different. Like most, he felt pro athletes were overpaid, but preferred the money go to the players instead of the billionaire owners. Back then fans still had to drive or fly to get to the games.

Son - He became a sports fan in the 2030s, and can only chuckle when Gramps spins his old-school sports yarns, or when Dad remembers back to when he was a kid. He takes for granted that he can watch any sporting event, anywhere in the world with the mere command of his voice. He's currently saving up to teleport to Super Bowl 68, and has almost raised the 1 million dollars needed for the ticket.

The Scene

Three generations of sports fans are seated around the brand new, one story, four dimension, billion pixel Z5000 television, watching the NFL playoffs and waxing sports. The year is 2033.

Gramps: Players today make too much money. I can remember when Jets receiver Johnny “Lam” Jones signed the NFL’s first million-dollar contract in 1980, and we thought that was ridiculous. Now that isn’t even a player’s per diem.

Son: Wow, that was all they paid him? That’s what it’s going to cost me to teleport to the Super Bowl in Tokyo.

Dad: Remember old Russell Wilson back in the day? After he led the Seahawks to their fourth straight Super Bowl he became football’s first 200-million-dollar man. But man, was he worth every penny.

Gramps: Yeah, he always reminded me of Doug Flutie.

Dad: He was so good, NFL coaches actually started considering quarterbacks under 6-feet tall.

Son: Was that before the strike in 2020?

Dad: Yeah, but even after the players sat out the year, the fans came flocking back. It used to cost about $500 to take the family to a Seahawks game, before they kept raising ticket prices.

Son: I still can’t believe that. You pay me more than that to unload the dishwasher. Didn’t you once tell me Russell Wilson could have played pro baseball?

Dad: Yeah, he turned down millions to play college football. The decision seemed to work out well for him and the Seahawks, who had the great vision to draft him.

Gramps: Speaking of baseball, those are the most overpaid players in the history of sports. People think Nolan Ryan was the first baseball player to make a million dollars a year in 1979, but it was actually Dave Parker, aka “the Cobra.”

Dad: That’s chump change compared to Alex Rodriguez. Remember how the veins in the foreheads of hardworking people practically exploded when he signed that 250-million-dollar contract?

Son: Kind of like when Felix Hernandez Jr. signed the first billion-dollar contract last year?

Dad: It was far worse. At the time, A-Rod was making more in one game than public school teachers were making in a career. Heck, he was making more than the Oakland A’s entire team for many years.

Gramps: Since we’re on the subject of salaries, I remember when Moses Malone signed the first million-dollar contract in 1979, and not long after he led the 76ers to the Promised Land. Dr. J, Bird, Magic, Kelly Tripucka, now those were the glory days of the NBA.

Son: Who are those guys?

Dad: The ones who paved the way for LeBron, Kobe and Durant to sign those 100-million-dollar deals.

Son: Who are those guys?

Dad: Believe it or not, there were players who made the game great long before Kelly Olynyck became the NBA’s first billion-dollar player a few years ago.

Gramps: Olynyck always reminded me of Bill Walton.

Son: Who’s that?

Eric Plummer is sports editor of the Daily Bee in Sandpoint. For comments, suggestions or story ideas, he can be reached at eplummer@bonnercountydailybee.com.